The day after Superstorm Sandy cut a path of destruction across the east coast officials in Naugatuck, Prospect, and Beacon Falls said the towns fared well.
“We dodged a bullet,” Prospect Mayor Robert Chatfield said. “Things are up and running. Commerce is moving.”
While the towns fared relatively well in the storm, there are trees down all over the towns and more than 1,700 people without power.
According to Connecticut Light and Power’s outage map Naugatuck has 1,360 people without power, Prospect has 141 people without power, and Beacon Falls has 277 people without power.
Beacon Falls First Selectman Gerard Smith sees the low numbers of power outages in his town as both a good and bad thing. Smith said he’s very happy the town did not get hit any harder than it did, but since there are so few people without power, and all are in a residential area, the town is very low on CL&P’s list of priorities.
“We don’t even have a time frame. It could be a week or longer, they’re telling me,” Smith said.
Smith said that he would let people know when CL&P provides him with more information.
Smith said that the damage could have been much worse than it was, however. There are not a lot of trees and branches down. Any tree that fell during the storm has been moved out of the roadways, Smith said.
Chatfield was also relieved that the storm did not do much damage to his town.
Chatfield said the only road that is currently closed is Holly Lane, which has a telephone wire across it.
There were a few trees down throughout the town. Most of the trees that fell were pine trees or trees with their leaves still attached, which acted like billowing sails and brought them down, Chatfield explained.
Prospect’s emergency shelter, which had opened during the night, is now closed, Chatfield.
Naugatuck was the hardest hit of the three towns.
There are power outages, downed trees and road closures throughout the borough.
“We seemed to get hit pretty good from 5 to 8 p.m. and that’s when we had a few trees come down,” Mayoral Aide Ed Carter said.
However, Carter explained that there were no significant areas of flooding or large areas that lost power. Most of the problems are localized.
He said that the borough hopes to open some charging stations for residents without electricity later today.
Both Carter and Mayor Robert Mezzo felt that, while the storm took a toll on Naugatuck, the borough come out better than other parts of the east coast.
“While it may be little consolation to those who have sustained property damage and/or are without power, Naugatuck has fared relatively better than many parts of Connecticut and the eastern seaboard. Several areas of the Connecticut coast are in very bad shape and residents there are still in significant danger. We ask that you keep our neighbors in your thoughts and prayers in the coming days, and exercise patience and perspective as we attempt to bring life in Naugatuck back to normal,” Mezzo wrote in his blog.
Region 16 and Naugatuck schools remain closed today.
Trash pick-up is currently one day behind schedule in Naugatuck.
